Despite decades of insisting that he’s a “political prisoner” who was set up, Bell finally convinced the Gov. Cuomo-appointed panel that he’s a remorseful, reformed man.
“There was nothing political about the act, as much as I thought at the time. It was murder and horribly wrong,” Bell told the board, according to its report released Wednesday.
Incensed law-enforcement officials weren’t buying it, with Police Commissioner James O’Neill describing the board’s decision as “indefensible.”
“Bell was sentenced to 25- years-to-life. Over the past 47 years, he has never expressed genuine remorse. And the parole board’s unjust and irresponsible decision today renders the life portion of that sentence meaningless,” he fumed in a statement.
The decision comes on the heels of other New York cop killers recently gaining their freedom, including Pablo “Paul” Costello for the the 1978 slaying of NYPD Officer David Guttenberg, and John Ruzas, who killed State Trooper Emerson Dillon in 1974.